darker shades of metal, hymns of goth and post-punk ...all for the worship of darkness

Friday, July 7, 2017

Limbonic Art : "Spectre Abysm

The opening track doesn't seem like these guys are offering anything new with the Norwegian band's take on black metal. However they are doing it with a more polished vigor and seem to have tapped into a well balanced medium between sharp production and feral gnashing of teeth. While the logical mind knows that the fleet feet creating this kind of double bass are part of the job requirements for playing black metal, that doesn't mean your ears might not still marvel at it. So far it's epic , but not symphonic, which is fine by me. They race by you in a blur , often sounding like a more tormented version of Watain. All the elements that should be in black metal are here. I believe what is going on here is genuine, I guess I am not blown away because they are not really doing much more than playing it safe in terms of the scope of sound they bring to the table.

The race from hell continues , but by the third song I feel I am growing immune to it's demonic intensity. It does slow into a more pounding section that offers a little shift in tempo, but when Watain does that sort of thing it creates more of a hook, this album is beginning to fade into the background. There is a much more Dimmu like feel to "Triumph of Sacrilege" . That is until the song really starts flying then it holds more in common with their earlier work. The first bit of atmosphere that involves synths is on "Disciplina Arcani" . It opens with the dramatic whisper of demon voices before a proclamation is made over pipe organ.

Not sure what it is with black metal these days but it seems the trend is to run out of gas on the last song. Here they don't loose speed just inspiration. Maybe it's staying angry for that long that takes it out of them. While they play what seems to be all the right notes I am not feeling the anger as I did on the other songs. So it's just not as inspired. So with that I'll round this one down to a 7.5 as it would have had to be a little less one dimensional to qualify for an 8. If you are a devoted fan of the band then you like one dimensional black metal and can round it back up to an 8, but I don't see myself listening to this one again, yet respect what they did here as they are good at what they do.